Celestion Ditton 44 sounding muddy

[system7]

Can't say I've ever had anything but improvement from polypropylenes, especially the big 650V ones which are industrial grade, but they are kinda BIG!

This is a good tip I picked up here. Give rubber surrounds a coat of silicone grease to preserve them from flaking and drying and maybe soften them a bit:



That's an aerosol can, but I put it on with a tissue. Good on black car dashboards too! Looks nice.

[jeffrey88]

Originally Posted by system7

Can't say I've ever had anything but improvement from polypropylenes, especially the big 650V ones which are industrial grade, but they are kinda BIG!

This is a good tip I picked up here. Give rubber surrounds a coat of silicone grease to preserve them from flaking and drying and maybe soften them a bit:

[Picture removed]

That's an aerosol can, but I put it on with a tissue. Good on black car dashboards too! Looks nice.

Thanks for that tip! I will definitely invest in that.

I guess I read about people having trouble with poly's on these crossovers for the dittons, but, maybe it's the brand they used. What I'll do is do some more research, and then when I find a suitable replacement I'll post about it here to get some feedback on it.

Thanks again Steve, I really appreciate it. I'll keep you posted.

[jeffrey88]

Okay so they've had about 10 hours of play on them now. I'm not noticing a huge difference at this point, when I switch to the IMF's it just sounds so much better. It still makes me think something is wrong.

[hans2]

Originally Posted by jeffrey88

Turns out that the speakers had been sitting for a long time. I've been playing them continuously for hours and they are really starting to open up.

quite often that's a psycho-acoustic thing... you might be "adjusting" to the "poor" sound.
.
the capacitor values on 95% of those that i've tested from that era have migrated 20-50% from spec. and that is detrimental to the sound.

cap replacement can be sort of labor/time intensive. you might try with one speaker first and then do a listening test between the two. good luck.

[jeffrey88]

You know, after doing some more testing I'm really thinking either the tweeter or the crossover is the culprit.

The sound vastly improves if I set the High to +10 and the Midrange to -5 on my amp. It seems like the tweeter just isn't playing loud enough - sounds great, in fact quite amazing, but only when it's at +10 on the amp.

[system7]

This is all proving a bit perplexing. But now you know the crossover you can replace (er, recap...) some of the Non-polars. The green ones look like metallised polyester film marked MKT normally, which should be long-lasting, but you might have a dry joint there.

Old speakers can have oxidised crimp connections too. You'll get there.

[jeffrey88]

I'm gonna take the tweeters off and see if maybe there's something loose or not connected fully there.

Unfortunately it's gonna be a while before I get to doing the crossover upgrade, as I don't have the tools (and I'm a little short on funds) so I'll have to try some other routes first before doing that.

I'll also try doing a deoxit on the speaker terminal and connectors to see if that helps any.

[system7]

This is hardly scientific, but connecting a 1.5V battery across the tweeters should give you a noticeable crackle which tells you how they are working. Technically positive to positive and the tweeter moves forward if polarity is correctly marked.

Cheap too.

[jeffrey88]

Originally Posted by system7

This is hardly scientific, but connecting a 1.5V battery across the tweeters should give you a noticeable crackle which tells you how they are working. Technically positive to positive and the tweeter moves forward if polarity is correctly marked.

Cheap too.

Good idea! I'll do that as well.

And of course, I'll report back.

Thank you for all of your help Steve, I really appreciate it.

[system7]

Don't know why I didn't think of this earlier.

What happens to the midranges when you push the bass in? Do they pop out?

Go round the midrange enclosure with PVA woodglue, and reseal them against air leaks from the bass. Might fix it.